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Gold or Silver?

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Silver is, but often corrodes, if corrosion is a problem then gold is a good choice, but expensive. So most use a copper of some sort.

But if you loose conductivity with a silver contact, you can burnish it.
Do this with a gold contact and you wear away the thin gold coating.
 
Why would you burnish a gold contact?.

How true, why would you need to as that defeats the purpose of using gold. At any rate I never burnish contacts, I have found a pencil eraser to be very effective in cleaning contacts.
 
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How true, why would you need to as that defeats the purpose of using gold. At any rate I never burnish contacts, I have found a pencil eraser to be very effective in cleaning contacts.

Wouldn't that be considered 'burnishing'?.

As you say, pencil rubber is quite good for it - so is a tiny squirt of WD40, and inserting the connector a few times.
 
Wouldn't that be considered 'burnishing'?.

As you say, pencil rubber is quite good for it - so is a tiny squirt of WD40, and inserting the connector a few times.

I think of burnishing as something more abrasive, erasers seem to be less evasive on the metal coat, yet are still effective.
 
How true, why would you need to as that defeats the purpose of using gold. At any rate I never burnish contacts, I have found a pencil eraser to be very effective in cleaning contacts.

A Q-tip dunk into alcohol cleans as well. (Not whiskey! Too expensive) :D
 
Many erasers have sand in them and will destroy the plating on a contact. The white ones for "artists" do not have the abrasive.
 
HI,

After reading several topics in the filed, yet I do not know which one is the better conductor for the electricity?
See this link Resistivity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for specific resistance of metals, you would be able to decide. due to cost effectiveness, they use copper and Aluminum with some protection against corrosion. It is economical to use aluminum (in fact ACSR) for power line feeders
 
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Renewing XLR's connectors.

**broken link removed**

I noticed this thinking of a way to renew XLR's on cables that become affected after aging a while.

In the schools we have cables running from mixers and some are old and out of date should be replaced I'm thinking the cable's might be salvageable ?

Based on what you guy's are saying.

I did consider what Nigel said about the WD40 though.


kv
 
**broken link removed**

I noticed this thinking of a way to renew XLR's on cables that become affected after aging a while.

In the schools we have cables running from mixers and some are old and out of date should be replaced I'm thinking the cable's might be salvageable ?

What has that got to do with silver?, you surely don't have silver cabling :D
 
But if you loose conductivity with a silver contact, you can burnish it.
Do this with a gold contact and you wear away the thin gold coating.
You can't burnish contacts inside switches or assemblies. You use gold because it doesn't oxidize in the first place and never have to worry about it in any reasonable life span of use.
 
I have a 1950's era Selmer Paris clarinet with silver plated keys. After seeing how fast they tarnish, I'll stick with gold plated stuff for my electronics work.
 
I have a 1950's era Selmer Paris clarinet with silver plated keys. After seeing how fast they tarnish, I'll stick with gold plated stuff for my electronics work.
as the clarinet crossed 59 years almost, perhaps a golden treat appears apt !!!
 
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It's actually pretty uniform over all the surface of the keys, not just where the fingers hit 'em. Still a great clarinet though.
 
What has that got to do with silver?, you surely don't have silver cabling :D

I think I had to many beers that night.

What was I thinking.

Maybe safer for the WD40.......... rinse Push-Pull rinse and repeat.....:p


kv:D
 
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